Lamachus () was an

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

strategos ''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...

or general in the

Peloponnesian War The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek war fought between Classical Athens, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Ancien ...

. He commanded as early as 435 BCE, and was prominent by the mid 420s.

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

caricatured him in '' The Acharnians'' and subsequently honoured his memory in '' The Frogs''. He was one of the three generals (alongside Nicias and

Alcibiades Alcibiades (; 450–404 BC) was an Athenian statesman and general. The last of the Alcmaeonidae, he played a major role in the second half of the Peloponnesian War as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician, but subsequently ...

) placed in command of the

Sicilian Expedition The Sicilian Expedition was an Classical Athens, Athenian military expedition to Sicily, which took place from 415–413 BC during the Peloponnesian War between Classical Athens, Athens on one side and Sparta, Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse and Co ...

. Lamachus, though older, was known for his fiery disposition and was fond of taking risks in battle. He was also so poor that during the campaigns in which he served as a general, he would charge the Athenian people money for his own clothes and boots. Although Lamachus was known for his courage and military skill, he was sometimes thought less qualified than other generals because he lacked the necessary wealth and social position.

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

first mentions Lamachus in ''The Life of Pericles''. Lamachus was given command of a fleet of thirteen ships so that he might aid the citizens of Sinope against Timesileos. The probable date of this expedition is 438–432 BCE between the Samian War and the beginning of the

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

states that Lamachus was sent to the

Euxine The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

again in 424 BCE for the purpose of collecting tributes. Lamachus had sailed into the Pontus and anchored his ships in the river Calex. There he lost ten of his ships during a sudden flood, but was able to deliver his men safely to

Chalcedon Chalcedon (; ; sometimes transliterated as ) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, Turkey. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari (modern Üsküdar) and it is now a district of the city of Ist ...

. In 415 BCE, Lamachus was elected general of the Sicilian Expedition with Nicias and

. Lamachus proposed an aggressive strategy against Syracuse thinking that the Athenians should attack as soon as possible while the inhabitants were still unprepared for battle. His proposal was rejected in favor of the strategy of Alcibiades, which consisted of gathering allies around

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

prior to engagement. Donald Kagan has suggested that Lamachus's strategy might well have brought

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

a quick victory instead of the disaster that ensued.Kagan, ''The Peloponnesian War'' Lamachus died fighting in Sicily after he and a handful of his men were trapped on the wrong side of a ditch and overwhelmed.

References

,
The Acharnians
'. From the

Perseus Project The Perseus Digital Library, formerly known as the Perseus Project, is a free-access digital library founded by Gregory Crane in 1987 and hosted by the Department of Classical Studies of Tufts University. One of the pioneers of digital libraries, ...

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

,
Library
'. From the

,
Alcibiades
'. From the

,
Nicias
'. From the

,
Pericles
'. From the

,
History of the Peloponnesian War
'. From the

* Kagan, Donald. ''The Peloponnesian War'' (Penguin Books, 2003). *Fine, John V.A. ''The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History'' (Harvard University Press, 1983) *Hornblower, Simon, and Anthony Spawforth ed., ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (Oxford University Press, 2003) *Stadter, Philip A. ''A Commentary On Plutarch's Pericles'' (The University of North Carolina Press, 1989). *West, Allen B. ''Notes on Certain Athenian Generals of the Year 424-3 B.C.'' The American Journal of Philology 45.2 (1924):141–160 *Hanson, Victor D. ''A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War'' (random House, 2006)

Footnotes

External links

Livius.org: Lamachus
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130305015150/http://www.livius.org/la-ld/lamachus/lamachus.html , date=5 March 2013 414 BC deaths 5th-century BC Athenians Ancient Athenian generals Ancient Greeks killed in battle Year of birth unknown Athenians of the Peloponnesian War